James Almen, of St. Paul, uses Metro Mobility to get to his doctor’s appointments at the Allina Clinic in Vadnais Heights.

But when Almen, who is blind, tried to book a ride home from his 1:30 p.m. Thursday exam, he was told that he would need to wait an extra 2 ½ hours at the clinic. “They said a driver couldn’t get me until 5 p.m. at the earliest,” he said.

A shortage in drivers led the contractor who covers Metro Mobility’s east zone to cancel pick ups last week outside the “ADA zone” between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m., he said. The Americans with Disabilities Act guidelines require that the Metropolitan Council provide Metro Mobility service within ¾-mile of any all-day, local, regular-route service: the federally-mandated ADA service area. The state requires that Metro Mobility serve the Transit Taxing District — the state’s mandated service area.

Almen, a rehabilitation instructor at Vision Loss Resources in Little Canada, ended up taking a Lyft home. The total charge was $25. Had he gotten a ride from Metro Mobility, it would have cost him $3.50, he said.

“It’s going to be really frustrating and very costly,” Almen said. “It sucks. It’s going to be tough for a lot of people, especially for our clients who come into our facility daily.”

Almen said he is especially concerned that Metro Mobility did not let clients in the east zone know about the change. The east zone includes: Arden Hills, Anoka, Bayport, Baytown Township, Birchwood Village, Blaine, Centerville, Circle Pines, Columbia Heights, Coon Rapids, Dellwood, Falcon Heights, Fridley, Hilltop, Gem Lake, Lauderdale, Landfall, Lake Elmo, Lexington, Little Canada, Lino Lakes, Maplewood, Mahtomedi, Mounds View, New Brighton, North Oaks, North St. Paul, Oak Park Heights, Oakdale, Pine Springs, Roseville, Saint Anthony, Saint Paul, Shoreview, Stillwater, Spring Lake Park, White Bear Lake, White Bear Township, Willernie and Woodbury.

“It was never announced,” Almen said. “You don’t find out until you actually call, and they tell you. You might have had some appointments planned for a while, too. This is a big issue. If you go to work, let’s say they get you in the morning in St. Paul and bring me to Vadnais Heights. During rush hour, that Lyft ride would be, you know, astronomical.”

Even if Almen waited until after the peak time of 5 p.m. for a ride home, the wait could be much greater, he said. “I work till 4:30,” he said. “Let’s say I decide to wait until 5. Well, 5 doesn’t mean 5. It just means that’s when they can start scheduling. So it could be 5:30 or 6.”

Metro Mobility contracts its east zone coverage to a company called Transdev; Transdev officials did not return a phone call on Friday seeking comment.

Transdev officials made the “operational decision” to move non-ADA zone rides out of the peak-time period — 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. — to address a driver shortage, said Andy Streasick, assistant director for Metro Mobility.

Streasick said that change is likely to continue through the end of the month.

“It’s not set in stone,” he said. “They may make exceptions. I talked with them, and they did clarify that if somebody makes it clear that they have an appointment they can’t move, they will try to do that ride, but they’re trying to move as many rides as they can that are non-ADA rides outside of that peak point right now to address a driver shortage. … We are hopeful that it’s very short term.”

Streasick said he has asked Transdev officials to “do whatever (they) can to avoid denying rides altogether.”

“We really don’t want to deny rides, so if you can negotiate a different time of day, a different day of the week, whatever the case might be,” he said. “You know, maybe somebody is going to get groceries, and they don’t know that Wednesdays are our busiest day. Maybe if you can have them booked that on a Friday, you know, we can go help them get their groceries. We’re trying to do that kind of troubleshooting.”

The driver shortage in the east zone is especially acute this time of the year, he said. Many people stop applying for driving jobs around the holidays, “from late November and pretty much through December, and that hit them,” Streasick said.

Transdev is currently down about 20 drivers in the east zone, he said.

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Metro Mobility officials have been trying to raise awareness about the shortage and earlier this year approved a wage increase for drivers, he said. Metro Mobility drivers start at $24.20 an hour; a commercial driver’s license is not required.

“We want to make sure that everybody is aware that we’ve raised our rates for drivers systemwide,” he said. “Now they are pretty comparable to what our fixed-route drivers are making on the Metro Transit system. That has not historically been the case.”

Matt Kramer, president and CEO of Vision Loss Resources, said he hopes the issue is resolved soon.

“We had a client this week from Stillwater who needed to get to the (University of Minnesota) campus for a health-care appointment,” Kramer said. “Before, she was always able to get appointments, she made reservations or made appointments with her health care people, but then, all of a sudden, they changed the rules.”

FYI

Metro Mobility drivers start at $24.20 an hour. Anyone interested in becoming a driver with Metro Mobility can apply with Transit Team https://transitteam.com/employment/ or Transdev https://transdevna.jobs/  A commercial drivers license is not required.